Masquerade Kiss is one of the most anticipated otome games from the past few years. Love 365 has become well-known as a hub for quality visual novels, with plenty of great titles to choose from. However, many fans were wary of this new game’s release, as it changed up the system they had known for so long in the app. Masquerade Kiss offers a new story, with the main character working as a spy but eventually falling for her target. We at Honey’s Anime thought we would try it out, to see if this game is worth all the hype!

Masquerade Kiss is the first in the Love 365 catalog to offer the main story as entirely free, though you might have to wait in between episodes. Players will read through the story and make choices as to how the main character might act or what they might say, which in turn affects the outcome of the story. Some story choices can only be unlocked by using “hearts,” which are a sort of in-game currency you can purchase. Though the genres of the titles vary in the Love 365 catalog, Masquerade Kiss is more realistic, focusing on a mature yet entertaining love story. There will be three different guys to choose from in total, though as of our playthrough, only two options were available.

Depending on your choice in the beginning, the main character will be targeting one of two gentlemen, to subtly spy on them and find the information you seek. Of course, what should have been an easy task will become complicated when you start to develop feelings for your target… Your life hangs in the balance as well, since failure is not tolerated at your organization! Will you be able to find a happy ending for you and the object of your affections? Or is your fate already sealed? It’s up to the choices you make along the way to determine your own love story in Masquerade Kiss!

Masquerade Kiss is gorgeous to behold, with pristine art in the background and detailed character designs. Similar to many of the Love 365 games, the main character is rarely pictured, except in special CG images. The game flows along fluidly, occasionally being interrupted by the loading screens that happen whenever players make a choice, but these are so slight that they do not interrupt the game much. This is ultimately a beautiful game from start to finish, given the same level of care and quality that all Love 365 stories are known for. We were impressed by the elegant style of art in the game, and it certainly gave us a great first impression!

The soundtrack perfectly fits to the story as well. With the initial meeting of your character and the target taking place at a high-end masquerade party, we enjoyed the calm, jazzy background music to set the scene. Much to our surprise, this sort of soundtrack is actually the main theme for the game, carrying over into virtually every chapter. While we may not have expected it initially, these background themes add greatly to the feeling of being involved with the upper class, and even set the tone for when your character does her spy work as well! The themes carry over into either story, no matter which guy you choose, so you can enjoy the upbeat jazzy style regardless.

Taking a different approach to how players work through this game, Masquerade Kiss relies on a “love choice” system for players to have the best possible outcome in the 25-episode main story. There are a few choices that don’t really affect the story too much, and these are available for free. However, Masquerade Kiss requires a certain number of hearts for some choices, forcing you to pick the lesser option if you do not have the amount required. To obtain hearts, you can diligently log on every day to hope you get them for free. However, the fastest and easiest option is just to purchase the amount of hearts you will need to get the best storyline.

In the last few chapters of the story, you are faced with the ultimate choice. Without spoiling too much of the game, we’ll just say that the choices you make here will affect the final ending for the story. While the story up until this point hasn’t been too affected by how many hearts you use, the final ending certainly is. In order to complete the desired ending, you will need a significant amount of hearts here, so hopefully, you’re able to save them for this if nothing else! To complete all of the love choice options available for Kazuomi’s main story, you’ll need 169 hearts total, which translates to about $18 USD.

Of course, this price and number of hearts doesn’t account for wait times. Unlike most Love 365 games, Masquerade Kiss is free to read through, but you will have to wait for about 5 hours between chapters. The only way to combat this is to pay for more hearts in order to read the next chapter right away. We were lucky to play through most of the story on a weekend where all the chapters for Kazuomi Shido’s main story were free and available, but waiting for each chapter can be such a pain, especially when you’re getting to the latter half of the story. On the other hand, if you truly want to play through the game for free, you’ll probably be doing a lot of waiting. This is a big drawback to the game, and we can see how fans of Love 365’s otome work were disappointed with the change from their usual method of paying up front. It is nice that the game is more open to the general public, but you will probably need to pay some amount of money to get anywhere in the game, and it ends up being more expensive than a normal monthly access pass on the app.

There are also side stories that require payment to read. Both Kazoumi and Yuzuru have shorter, 7-episode stories that tell the experience from their point of view. Kazuomi also has an even shorter “Lover Obscura” tale about the night he and the main character spend together. These are light side tales for after you have already spent time in the main story learning about the characters’ relationships. They aren’t a required part of any story, but you are able to read a sample of each to see if they interest you enough to buy fully.

As far as the characters go, we were impressed with their realism. While most of us may not be secret agents or spies, the main character was surprisingly easy to relate to. We were able to put ourselves in her shoes, especially during moments where she was downing a container of ice cream or fangirling over a celebrity. She is a strong female figure, standing up for herself when she needs to and matching the main love interest in terms of both intelligence and beauty. She didn’t have an overwhelming personality that might make it hard to relate to, but she also wasn’t just a pliable character who followed along with whatever the guy wanted. The main character was almost as enjoyable to get to know as the gentlemen she is with!

Speaking of the men, the two men available at the time of our playthrough were Kazuomi Shido and Yuzuru Shiba. Kazuomi is the head of a large resort company, and he is arrogant, aggressive and dangerous in nature, yet he also manages to have a believably kind and endearing side. Over the course of getting to know him, the main character is drawn in by his tragic past and lonely nature, despite his appearance as a rich playboy. As for Yuzuru, he is a technical genius, creating many popular technological advances for the general public. He is cold and distant with his emotions, seemingly uncaring about anyone else. Of course, as the main character spends more time with him, she sees a different side to his nature.

Despite their status, both Kazuomi and Yuzuru are surprisingly realistic. Masquerade Kiss introduces their three main love interests well in the prologue, leading you to a negative mindset about each of them. But as you come to know Kazuomi and Yuzuru, you see their true nature underneath the façade they hold up for everyone else. While the events of either story may not be common for most of us, this game does a great job of making the development of the characters’ relationship seem real. Even in earlier chapters, the guys provide small indicators that tease they might be more genuine than they let on. During later scenes, we learn more about them, and it becomes easy to get attached. Voltage did a great job in writing such vibrant relationships for each of these characters.

Masquerade Kiss gave us a high-quality game overall. The graphics are detailed and beautiful for the backgrounds. Character design is also gorgeous, not only in terms of the graphic quality but also in terms of storytelling. These are all characters we were excited to get to know, and we looked forward to every tender moment, as well as the more lighthearted or carefree times! We also loved the soundtrack, and found that it really brings the story atmosphere together, while not being too overly distracting. While the game relies heavily on its love choice structure to earn money, we found that the story was worth the cost, although maybe not for every single aspect of the game.

Masquerade Kiss is an enjoyable otome game, and well worth spending some amount of money on. While we wouldn’t necessarily pay for every aspect of the game, we looked forward to each time a new episode was available to play and were excited to get to know each of the characters more. We are excited to see where the Love 365 games go from here!

What do you think of Masquerade Kiss in comparison to other otome games? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below! And stay tuned for more great reviews and news from us here at Honey’s Anime!